DC Films Enlists ‘IT’ and ‘The Conjuring‘ Producer as New President

It’s been a wild and bumpy — so, so bumpy — ride for the DCEU thus far. The studio’s most beloved characters are played by women, while their best (and, many would argue, only good) movie to date is Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman solo film. That may very well change in the coming years with new heroes and villains (and new films), but the studio’s plans are somewhat scattered and convoluted — which is why they’ve enlisted a new DC Films president to help right the ship.

Warner Bros. needs more than mere change if they hope to course-correct their superhero franchise; they need a massive creative overhaul, and that’s exactly what they’ve begun engineering in recent months following the disappointing box office and largely negative reviews for Justice League. Better late than never, TheHollywood Reporter brings word that WB has hired Walter Hamada to take over the role of DC Films president.

Hamada is the executive producer of last year’s horror hit IT, as well as The Conjuring films — which led to one of the more surprising (and surprisingly successful) cinematic universes in recent memory. DC’s Geoff Johns is still on board, though he’ll reportedly have a slightly different position moving forward. Over the fall, WB also removed Jon Berg from his post as head of the studio’s comic book movies division, with plans to hire someone to specifically oversee DC Films. That someone is Hamada.

Hamada and Dave Neustadter are known as “Team Genre,” and they’ve led WB’s smaller New Line division to immense success with their work on IT (which became the highest-grossing R-rated horror movie of all time) and The Conjuring franchise. Hamada has taken these concepts in a genre with a famously finicky and fickle audience, and transformed them into massive box office hits — and those are exactly the kind of talents WB needs for DC Films, which hasn’t exactly lived up to the precedent set by the MCU.

To date, the studio’s most successful movie is Wonder Woman — which made more than double what Justice League, WB’s answer to The Avengers, made in its run. Last year, WB announced a handful of new projects, including a Joker and Harley Quinn spinoff, the all-female DC villains ensemble Gotham City Sirens, and a third Harley Quinn spinoff — all of which will feature Margot Robbie reprising her role as the beloved villain. Although Suicide Squad was another failure for DC Films, Robbie’s portrayal of the favorite Batman baddie proved immensely popular with fans.

But, in another bizarre move, those films are said to be operating separately from the central DCEU. Those plans may change under Hamada’s leadership, as he works with Johns to salvage the superhero universe in the years to come.